Tailoring temperature invariant viscoelasticity of carbon nanotube material.

Using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as building blocks, we fabricated a viscoelastic material. In contrast to existing conventional materials where the stiffness (storage modulus) increases when the viscosity (damping ratio) decreases, both of these two aspects could be simultaneously improved for the viscoelastic CNT material. This allows fabricating both strong and highly viscous materials. This unique phenomenon was explained by a zipping and unzipping of carbon nanotubes at contacts as the origin of viscoelasticity.